1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication apparatus, such as an internet facsimile apparatus, and a communication method for performing a polling communication.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a procedure for transmitting data stored in a facsimile apparatus at an answering site according to a request from a data receiving station, a polling communication utilizing public switching telephone networks (PSTN) and others has been known. Usually, when the polling communication is performed, the data receiving site gives a call to the answering site to transmit a polling command, polling password and others. The answering site transmits the required data to the data receiving station. In a facsimile communication, it is possible for an unspecified data receiving station to draw out pre-registered data using this polling procedure. In addition, it is also possible to ensure the secrecy by a protection such as a password or the like depending on the necessity.
However, in a facsimile apparatus for transmitting and receiving data via the internet, so-called, xe2x80x9cinternet facsimilexe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cnetwork facsimilexe2x80x9d, the apparatus transmits and receives image data as an Email using a communication protocol for a message transfer such as SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). Since the transmission and reception are thereby performed asynchronously, it is not possible to use an usual polling procedure.
In addition, in the internet, it is possible to easily detect and analyze data stored in a LAN, which is different from the PSTN. Because of it, a conventional polling password is not enough to ensure the secrecy.
A first object of the present invention is to provide a communication apparatus for enabling a polling communication via the internet with an enough secrecy ensured.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a communication method for enabling a polling communication via the internet with an enough secrecy ensured.
The aforementioned objects can be achieved by a communication apparatus comprising: memory means for storing image data; reception means for receiving recipient information according to a message transfer protocol of electronic mail; decision means for deciding whether or not an identifier indicating a transfer request is contained in the received recipient information; and transmission means for transmitting image data stored in said memory means when said decision means decides that said identifier is contained.
The aforementioned objects can be achieved by a facsimile apparatus comprising: scanning means for scanning an original to obtain image data; memory means for storing said image data obtained by said scanner; reception means for receiving recipient information according to a message transfer protocol of electronic mail; decision means for deciding whether or not an identifier indicating a transfer request is contained in the received recipient information; and transmission means for transmitting image data stored in said memory means when said decision means decides that said identifier is contained.
The aforementioned objects can be achieved by a method for communicating image data comprising the steps of: transmitting from a sender side recipient information containing an identifier indicating a transfer request according to a message transfer protocol of electronic mail; deciding at a receiving side whether or not an identifier indicating said transfer request is contained in the received recipient information; and transmitting image data stored when it is decided that said identifier is contained.